NEW ORLEANS — When Damian Lillard walked into the Smoothie King Center for Thursday’s practice, it was his first return to the scene of last season’s playoff sweep and the most humiliating setback of his career.

There was no stirring of emotions, no flashbacks, no nothing.

“It ain’t going to change the series,” he said flatly after the practice.

But something did change between the playoff sweep and his return to New Orleans: Lillard, and his supporting cast.

New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry, the mastermind of the Pelicans’ game plan to double-team and trap Lillard, said on Friday that Lillard and the Blazers are better equipped to handle the postseason this year because double-teams are no longer the team’s kryptonite.

“I think somewhere along the line, they worked on that,” Gentry said with a chuckle. “We tried to do it in the first game with them this year, and Dame wasn’t...